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Posted on 03/08/2009 1:47:36 AM PST by Scanian
The current American system of government, the one created by our Constitution, was formed out of thirteen sovereign states. Among all the myriad threats to our liberty, the disintegration of the independent rights of state governments is, in many ways, the most dangerous threat.
"States' rights" has gotten a bad name. This vital principle of American government has been linked to Dixiecrat racism and thug rule by local bosses. The reality is very different. States are the best agents for protecting the rights of minorities. The mashing of states into lifeless appendages of the federal government poses dangers for freedom and for the rights of the oppressed.
Mormons were hounded across our nation until they settled in Utah and the Rocky Mountain region. Once safe, Mormons became patriotic and productive Americans. Their faith was protected by a powerful local political influence. People who admired the values of Mormons could live happily in Utah; those who wanted a different lifestyle could live anywhere else.
Jews and Catholics left Europe to escape persecution. They found sanctuary in America, but more specifically Jews and Catholics found governments sympathetic to their culture, faith, and interests in the industrial, urbanized North. Jews, Irish, and Italians established their own version of America in those cities and states.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Cue the Bocephus “If the South Woulda Won the War”
We have slept while the cancer called liberalsim now called socialism, festered and turned terminal in our states.
Ping!
States' powers do not necessarily lead to benign results, and have been all too often abused, as have powers of all governments on all levels.
So, though state governments do have a definite role to play in the American federal system, let's not go overboard in lauding them from either an historical or contemporary perspective.
only humans and private entities have rights, and government at any level has no rights, but has only those powers ceded to it by the governed. The appropriate term is states' powers.well put, justiceseeker93.
Dogpile
Well put - and I agree to a certain extent with your premise.
But in the eyes of the Federal Gov’t, a ‘state’ has traditionally been considered as a single sovereign entity among the many sovereign entities that make up the USA.
So in the sense of the relationship between the states and the Federal Gov’t....you could term it that the ‘states’ as an individual entities has certain rights, which cannot be trounced upon per Amendment X.
Now when it comes to the relationship between the individual and the state AND the federal in terms of the Citizen / Gov’t relationship, we’re on the same page, absolutely. Just using the words a bit differently.
No, I think there is an important difference between the words "rights" and "powers." Amendment X reserves powers "to the States respectively, or to the people." It does not use the word "rights" in connection with the states. "State's Rights" is and has been pure political jargon, not a constitutional principle.
bamahead: --you could term it that the 'states' as ... individual entities has [sic] certain rights, which cannot be trounced upon per Amendment X.
No, I think there is an important difference between the words "rights" and "powers." Amendment X reserves powers "to the States respectively, or to the people." It does not use the word "rights" in connection with the states. "State's Rights" is and has been pure political jargon, not a constitutional principle.
Well, and precisely put, justiceseeker..
States cannot write laws, nor can their constitutions violate our individual rights to "life, liberty or property, without due process of law"..
Moreover, it makes no difference at all if we are 'divinely' endowed. -- Our rights are self evident and inalienable, regardless of who we see as our creator.
Ping!
Ah. See you’re both already here!
What the heck, BUMP anyway. I appreciate you keeping me in mind.
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